Monterrey prison riot covers mass escape by gang members

Police hold back the relatives of inmates outside the Apodaca correctional state facility as they try to get past the gates in Apodaca on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday Feb. 19, 2012. A fight among inmates at the prison led to a riot that killed dozens on Sunday, according to a security official. (AP Photo/Hans Maximo Musielik)

The riot that killed 44 inmates early Sunday in the state prison in Apodaca, an industrial Monterrey suburb that abuts the city’s international airport, covered the escape of 30 members of the vicious Zetas gang, Gov. Rodrigo Medina said this morning.

Medina fired the prison’s warden and Nuevo Leon state’s director of penitentiaries. The 18 guards on duty at the time of the riot have been detained for questioning.

“It’s tough for us to confirm that the treason, corruption and complicity of some could obstruct the service of good police officers, soldiers and marines,” Medina said in a press conference.

The two-hour riot started about 2 a.m. Sunday, with Zetas and their supporters attacking the cell block houses members of the Gulf Cartel. Many of the victims were chased into the prison year, where some were stabbed and most others were bludgeoned to death with clubs, bricks and rocks, officials say. At least one man was beheaded.

A state police officer wearing a face mask stands behind the fence as relatives of inmates wait for news after a prison riot at Apodaca correctional state facility in Apodaca on the outskirts of Monterrey, Mexico, Sunday Feb. 19, 2012. A fight among inmates at the prison led to a riot that killed dozens on Sunday, according to a security official. (AP Photo/Hand Maximo Musielik)

In the confusion, dozens of accused Zetas members slipped out of the jail.

The Gulf Cartel and the Zetas, originally formed as the cartel’s enforcers, have been warring for the past two years for control of Monterrey and other northeastern and Gulf Coast cities. Thousands have been killed, including hundreds last year in the Monterrey area.

Sunday’s riot follows a similar Jan. 4 battle in Altamira, near Tampico, that killed 31.

Another such riot in Matamoros killed 20 in 2010. In additions, hundreds of accused gangsters have escaped from prisons in Nuevo Laredo, Reynosa and Matamoros in recent years, with the complicity of jailers.